


Gwen Goes Snooping

by jolymusichetta



Series: Tony Officially Unofficially Adopts Gwen [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-24 00:31:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2561426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jolymusichetta/pseuds/jolymusichetta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony locks Gwen in her room during an important Avengers meeting, so of course, Gwen finds a way to eavesdrop. Through the ducts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gwen Goes Snooping

The air duct creaked uncertainty under Gwen’s weight as she crawled through them, having threatened JARVIS with a glass of water on his control panel if he so much as breathed a word to Tony that she was eavesdropping on the Avengers meeting he had told her was “completely top secret” and locked her in her room. It obviously wasn’t life threatening or a monster threatening New York because Tony would have had her, her mom and her three brothers, Howard, Philip and Simon, on the next plane to Hong Kong if it meant it got all of them, but mostly Gwen, out of the way so they didn’t get hurt. Tony didn’t care about the Stacy family, not really, he was mostly indifferent, but even he knew that to even have the slightest chance of convincing Gwen on an airplane out of New York, he would need to have her whole family on that damn plane.

But she crawled along slowly, testing the areas underneath her hands first before she put weight on them, trying to prevent any unnecessary noises, because she was sure someone down there would notice. Besides, she threatened JARVIS not to tell, doesn’t mean she wouldn’t end up giving herself away. Carefully, she moved along until she felt something crawl against her hand.

Now, Gwen Stacy was not afraid of bugs. She was not afraid of arachnids or insects or anything creepy-crawly, really but the feeling of something skittering across her hand had her letting out the most quiet gasp she could manage until she realized that it was just a hair and she got herself entirely worried over absolutely nothing. She took a moment to press a hand to her face, taking a few silent breaths through her mouth, because she wasn’t sure exactly where in Stark Tower she was, before she continued on, finally coming across the vent for the living room and moving over it despite the creaking, causing her to wince and remove her hand to take the weight off of it, finding a more suitable place to rest it while she listened in on the conversation. The vent was closed, blocking her view, unfortunately, but she could still listen.

“We can’t mess around with Necrospark,” Steve was saying from below, sounding as serious as ever, despite the fact that Gwen had never heard of that one. Must be a new villain, with what sounds like electric powers.

Bruce started talking next, “I’ve managed to be monitoring his position, he actually gives off a faint gamma radiation, making it all the easier for me to track him.” There was the slightest sound of pen scratching against paper, letting Gwen know that Clint was definitely there, since only Natasha and Steve had learned to sign to make these meetings a little easier on him.

“Good,” the only female voice said, which means it was Natasha, or Clint, doing his scarily accurate Natasha impression. “Sooner we find him, sooner we can neutralize the threat before it even happens.” 

Gwen raised her eyebrows. Tony was there, right? He was being strangely quiet and Tony was always the type of person to want to have his two cents taken into account. But she wasn’t focused on that because she was focused on the fact that the metal of the air duct below her knee seemed wobbly and she chose the lesser of two evils: She scrambled onto the creaky vent, ignoring the way the metal rungs of the vent dug into her knees. But it didn’t last long because the vent gave out and she nearly screamed if she hadn’t only fallen about eight feet before there were arms catching her and stopping her before she hit the ground. She was sure it was Tony, because who else would have noticed that the vent was about to fall but her heart was pounding too loudly and painfully against her chest to notice that Tony wasn’t the one cradling her. She pressed her face into his neck, trying to regain her steady breathing back before she peaked open one eye and noticed the tag on the back of the shirt. She frowned. She knew that pattern. And it didn’t belong to Tony. After a moment, she grinned.

“Peter!” He smiled back before her grin soured and she narrowed her eyes, worming out of his arms despite the fact that her legs were still wobbly from the fall. “So you get to listen in on secret Avenger business and not me?”

“Gwen-”

“No. Why the hell is that? I could help, I’m good with science and-”

“Gwen,” Peter tried again, a little more insistently before he was cut off again.

She jabbed a finger at his chest, glad for the distraction. “No! Why couldn’t I help-?” She didn’t ask that question to him, she asked it to Tony, who was standing no more than six feet away with his arms crossed. The room, normally wide, empty and feeling like it could use a touch of home, was covered with balloons, streamers and a banner over the doorway that said Happy Birthday Gwen!

She hadn’t been expecting that. Her birthday had been on the 27th of last month, and it was now the 9th, and now she understood why Tony seemed to casually forget her birthday when she spent every waking moment there and JARVIS would have informed him. Suddenly, she didn’t feel so upset that he had forgotten.

She stole a quick kiss from Peter with a soft, apologetic smile before she went over to find Tony, who had moved from the immediate area to pour himself another drink from his counter. “Tony,” she said to get his attention, leaning against the front of the counter. “Did you set all this up yourself?”

“Thank Pepper,” was all Tony said before taking a sip of his drink, setting it down on the counter. “So, how old are you then, eleven, twelve?” He watched as Gwen took the glass, taking a long sip out of it. “Certainly not old enough for that.” He spoke in a tone that indicated just how bored he was of this party already, like he wanted to kick everyone out of his house and drink the night away but Gwen called bull.

Tony took the glass back as Gwen swallowed the whiskey down with a grimace. “I won’t tell if you won’t.” She moved around the counter, leaning her hip against it. “Thank you, Tony.”

He shook his head. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, shrugging as he took a sip of his whiskey and went to rejoin the party. “It was all Pepper, honestly.”

“Don’t believe any of that Pepper shit!” Natasha called, all while signing the conversation to Clint since he couldn’t read their lips. “He’s been planning this for months.”

Tony groaned. “Well, shit, Romanoff. I wasn’t going to tell her that.”

Even Thor rolled his eyes. “She already knew, Stark,” he said, taking a sip of his wine from the glass he took from Darcy.

Once Tony had given them a glare that told them to mind their own business, he wound his arm around Gwen’s shoulders. “You surprised?” He managed one of the most genuine smiles he had, a smile that he reserved just for Gwen.

She nodded. “Very.” And she was, looking around the room. Mostly because Tony remembered but she could tell that the decorating was all him. Nobody, not Pepper nor Rhody nor Bruce helped him. And that alone just made it all the better.

“You didn’t think I forgot, did you?” he asked. Touching moment over, they had moved onto the teasing stage once more. “Have a little faith, Stacy.”

She rolled her eyes, not moving away from his side. “Do you blame me, Stark?”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” Gwen just flashed him a blinding grin, winding her arm around his waist and closing his eyes as he kissed the top of her head. They were like that for just a moment longer before a flash went off and Peter was standing there with his camera.

“Photo proof forever that Tony has a soft spot,” he announced and before Tony could even so much as advance towards him, he tossed the camera to Natasha, knowing she would catch that. “Keep it safe for me! New York’s going to wanna see this picture.” He moved to the couch to get something from his bag, a wrapped box with a bow on top. “Here, Gwen. It’s from all of us.”

Gwen opened it with a raised eyebrow, pulling away from Tony just enough to do so. Inside was a Spider-Man costume, except lacking the full facial mask. It only had a hood to replace it. It was a little heavier on the back with the same cable container Peter used on the wrists. “Spider-Man costume.”

“In case you even want to come out with me on a late night swing. See, if there’s trouble, this button here will contact every single one of us,” he said, pointing out the button right on the hood, “And you have the cables and in the back, if the cables fail or don’t stick, there’s even a small pair of wings, just enough to support your weight. Design courtesy of Tony, idea courtesy of Sam.”

From the back of the room, where he was loitering with Bucky, Sam raised his hand. “Trust me when I say, falling isn’t fun. Could break your neck.”

She was quiet for a moment, taking in all the special features, taser on the hip, Darcy’s doing, a place for important notes or papers on the side, not sure who’s doing it was, but it wasn’t a bad idea. “So … I’m basically an Avenger now, right?”

Almost everyone in the room gave a unanimous decision, save for one.

Tony voted no. If only because he almost lost Pepper. He didn’t want to even come close to losing Gwen too.


End file.
